Just a reminder! Thanks for visiting us at Shots Hurt Less Blog! This is just a reminder that the information on this site is intended to be for informational purposes only. It should never replace the recommendations of your doctor - check with your doctor if you have any specific questions! We will always honor and protect patient confidentiality, and we ask that you all do the same, if you choose to comment on our posts. Thanks for visiting!

Entries in Tips
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Happy Summer! Summertime is a time for running through the grass with bare feet, sipping lemonade and eating watermelon on the front porch, swimming all day long, bubbles and side walk chalk and bicycles and slip and slides...But all this outdoor play provides ample opportunity for ticks to find their way onto our little ones arms and legs.

Why do we care? Because ticks carry diseases such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF is common in NC) and Lyme Disease (which is more common in the Northeast) among others.

Tip 1: Every night at bedtime, be sure to do a "tick check" and look over their body for any ticks (be sure to look in socks, in waistbands, at the collar, and on the scalp).

Please note that a tick must be on the body for 36-48 hours to pass any illness to humans. Thus, a tick check with prompt tick removal is an essential component of disease prevention.

After your child has been diagnosed with seasonal allergies (or if you suspect that is what is the cause of the itchy eyes, sneezing, and runny noses at your house), rest assured treatments are available! Our goal is for your child to feel good and have fun. We don't want these kids to be sitting inside miserable with a box of tissues. See below for tips on how you can help your child minimize his symptoms so he can get back to doing what children do best: playing/exploring/learning in the great outdoors.

Treatment of Seasonal Allergies: - Oral Antihistamines (Benadryl, Zyrtec, Claritin, Allegra): Oral antihistamines block one of the agents responsible for producing swelling and secretions in your child’s body, called histamine (and most are available over the counter now). There are three categories of oral antihistamines. The oldest category, the

The number of sniffling kids in clinic seems to be increasing rapidly over the past couple of weeks. And while sniffling noses are annoying during the day....at night they can be downright horrid, keeping kids (and parents) awake.

We, your pediatricians, get it! We understand how difficult these sleepless nights and days with irritable kids can be....and we want to help. However, most of these symptoms are due to a virus and antibiotics are not the answer (they can not work against a virus). So instead, we try to arm you with the tools to combat suffering (your childs and your own). In addition to the standard suggestions we pediatricians offer to parents of children suffering from colds (upper respiratory infections) - see Dr. Barry's previous post "FYI: Sniffles and Sneezes" - have you tried Vick's Vapor Rub for kids over 2 years?

A study published in 2010 compared children ages 2-11 years with cold symptoms (runny, stuffy noses and cough) who used Vicks Vapor Rub versus kids who used placebo ointment (like Vaseline) versus kids who used nothing. Of note, parents had to put a strip of the vapor rub under their own nostrils so they couldn’t smell if the ointment they applied was medicated or not.

Children (and parents) were then asked to rate the child's night-time symptoms (cough, congestion, and difficulty sleeping). The results were impressive....children treated with Vapor Rub were significantly able to sleep better than were children who received the placebo ointment or no treatment.

Ear, nose or eye infections are generally treated with external drops. It is always easier to administer drops to a baby or young child if you lay him on a flat surface before you begin and enlist the help of another adult or an older child to keep him still and hold his head steady. An older child will probably be more co-operative and you will only need to ask him to tilt his head back or to the side, while you put the drops in.

Ear drops

1. Warm the drops to body temperature (hold the bottle in your hands for a few minutes or under a stream of warm, not hot, tap water) as cold drops can cause dizziness and nausea

Read the Label. Before asking your child to "open wide," step one in giving any medicine is knowing what the drug is, how to use it, what reactions to look for. Dr. Bostein, pediatrician and acting director of the FDA Office of Drug Evaluation encourages parents to ask their doctor or pharmacist the following questions:

- What is the drug and what is it for?

- Will there be a problem with other drugs my child is taking?

- How often and for how long does my child need to take it?

- What side effects does it have?

- How soon will it start working?

Tips for Administering Liquid Medication with a syringe or medicine spoon or cup:

Infants and toddlers will usually take medication measured in a syringe (1 ml, 5 ml or 10 ml).

- Give it slowly in their cheek

- Give a very small amount of medication in between screams/crying, most children will swallow it with their saliva